throne of Portugal?" The image bowed, signifying its assent.

Demetrius. Bless me! was not this

derful?

very won

Luke. Very wonderful, indeed, Demetrius; and had the Priest ended his inquiries here, it would have been recorded among image-working wonders, for the edification of the faithful in every place: but, unfortunately for the honour of the image, and of the Priest too, he must ask a few more questions to render what was already certain, doubly sure; when, all on a sudden, the image ceased to pay any attention to his questions, and would neither bow nor shake its head any more. He, however, kept on proposing and repeating questions, till at length a little boy put his head from behind the drapery which had concealed him, and said, "Sir, it is not my fault, the string is broke!" Ah! Demetrius, here was the grand secret of the revelations made by the saint,—the string.

Demetrius. This was abominable!

Luke. Only a pious fraud, Demetrius !—a part of the system of deception which has for many ages been carried on in that Church. I wonder that the populace on whose credulity the wretch had been practising did not take the string and convert it into a cat-o'-nine-tails, and soundly flagellate him. This is a part of that mystery of iniquity which St. Paul said had be

gun to work in his day, but which could not then be fully manifested,-a system of iniquity carried on by "Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." (2 Thess. ii. 9, 10.)

Demetrius. I begin to suspect that a system of religion which allows the practice of pious frauds, as they are called, cannot be of God.

Luke. Most assuredly not, Demetrius; for God abhors all deceit: he requires simplicity and godly sincerity in all we do; and threatens to punish all liars, whether in trade, in politics, or in religion, in the lake of fire with him who is the father of lies. The many recorded convictions of the frauds practised in support of the follies and demoralizing superstitions of Popery, which have not only been winked at, but directly sanctioned, by the rulers of the Papal Church, incontestably place her among that class of criminals, described by the inspired writer, as those "who make a lie." The whole system of image worship is a system of deception. Jeremiah, speaking on this subject, saith, "His molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them: they are vanity, and the work of errors." (Jer. x. 14, 15.)

Demetrius. I wish I had been any thing but an image maker. But have you any other reason for being an enemy to images, besides those which you have mentioned?

Luke. Yes, Demetrius, a more weighty reason than because the practice is either foolish or heathenish, though these are quite sufficient to lead me to despise it: I am an enemy to it, chiefly, because it is idolatrous, and exposes image worshippers to eternal death.

Demetrius. Do you think, then, that all image worshippers are idolaters ?

Luke. Allow me to answer this question, Demetrius, by asking another. What is an

idolater?

Demetrius. He is, I suppose, an idol worshipper.

Luke. And what is an idol, Demetrius?

Demetrius. I do not consider myself competent to answer that question, and shall therefore feel obliged if you will answer it.

Luke. An idol, in the general sense in which it is used in Scripture, is the image of any creature, whether animate or inanimate, to which religious worship is paid. Take, for example, the following passages:-Manasseh "set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God." (2 Chron. xxxiii. 7.) "Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them." (Isa. xlviii. 5.) "And they made a calf" (that is, the image of a calf) "in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol." (Acts vii. 41, compared with Deut. ix. 16.) "Ye have seen their abo

minations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them." (Deut. xxix. 17.) Josiah the King "put away the images and the idols, and all the abominations." (2 Kings xxiii. 24.) "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands." (Ps. cxv. 4.) I could produce many other texts to prove that an image of any kind which is the object of religious worship is an idol. Is not he, then, who worships an image, an idolater?

Demetrius. So, certainly, the Heathen were, because the objects represented by their images were not God, and his holy angels, and saints, but heathen warriors and legislators, and I know not who besides, which, in consideration of the benefits they had conferred upon the world when they lived in it, were supposed after death to be deified.

Luke. Yes, Demetrius, I know this is the way the Priests in your Church endeavour to parry the charge of idolatry, and to throw dust into the eyes of their flock; but it will not do, as I shall soon convince you. You remember, Demetrius, that the Israelites once made an image, and worshipped it. Whom was that image intended to represent? A heathen warrior or legislator? Neither the one nor the other; but Jehovah himself. Hence they said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out

of the land of Egypt." (Exodus xxxii. 4.) They meant either that the image itself, or that the God represented by it, had brought them out of the house of bondage. Yet though they "offered burnt offerings and peace offerings" to this golden image, as the representative of the God who had delivered them, the anger of the Lord was kindled, and he said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them." (Exod. xxxii. 9, 10.)

Demetrius. I am satisfied that the golden calf was worshipped in honour of the God who delivered them from Egypt, and that that God was none other than Jehovah himself; and I must also confess, however reluctantly, that God was angry with them for it.

Luke. Yes, Demetrius, and he is angry with all image worshippers, as well as every other kind of idolater; for it is a direct transgression of his own law. Do you, Demetrius, remember the second commandment?

Demetrius. I do. It runs thus, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

Luke. Stop, Demetrius; you are repeating the third.

Demetrius. No, indeed, Sir, I am repeating the second.